‘Duck' is Selanne's middle name

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For 20 NHL seasons, Teemu Selanne has given them more, signing their photos, jerseys and pucks, certainly, but also writing his name on something that really matters.

Their hearts.

“Everybody who meets him loves him,” says Dustin Penner, who was a teammate of Selanne's and then a rival of Selanne's and now is a teammate again. “He's done it all yet maintained a great sense of humility.

“His genuine humanity almost makes him inhuman.”

Selanne's only from another country, not another planet. But it's that humanity – combined with talent also rather unearthly – that has made him what he is here, more than 5,000 miles from home.

The most popular Duck of all time.

It's not even close.

The face of the franchise? Selanne is the entire body, more Duck than Donald and Daffy and also more real yet, somehow, just as animated.

“He makes every person he comes across feel special or important or just normal,” Penner says. “That's what I would say, ‘normal,' because he's just a regular guy, too.”

Sounds like a personality trait often exhibited by politicians.

“Teemu will probably be the president or the prime minster of Finland,” Penner says, “before his life's over.”

No question he'd be elected leader of the original Duck dynasty, 20 years in business now, Selanne the one most often asked by the voting public to sign – among other things – body parts, car hoods and airplanes. Yes, he once autographed an
airplane.

Selanne has been seen signing at 2 a.m. on a frozen Winnipeg sidewalk, signing in Finland for an opponent against whom he had just played and signing in a Honda Center hallway for his head coach.

“He's been popular forever because he enjoys the game,” says Coach Bruce Boudreau, who admits he has secured a few Selanne signatures. “If I was a fan sitting up there and a guy's playing with passion and he looks like he's loving the game, I like that guy.”

Selanne has provided the Ducks more goals, assists, power-play points and game-winning scores than anyone.

He has, quite simply, given this franchise more of himself than any other player, and we're not just talking here about the blood, sweat and teeth he has left behind. Selanne's DNA is interwoven with that of the team.

He also has been the Ducks' finest ambassador, famously mingling with the public, engaging sick children and spending more time than required with the fans, whether he met them two minutes or two decades ago.

“My personality … I like to meet the people,” Selanne explains. “I like to talk to people. It's the way I was raised at home. It's the easiest part of my job. To give a couple minutes to someone who wants an autograph, really it's not a big deal.”

Defenseman Cam Fowler recalls that night Selanne stood in the shivering night air in Winnipeg, saying, “He's almost like a rock star.”

Boudreau laughs about Selanne going to the rink to watch his sons play and then sitting among the other moms and dads, just a normal parent but “with a little more money than the rest of them.”

Former Duck Jason Marshall remembers waiting on the team's game-bound bus for Selanne, who was busy signing autographs – what else? – only to have him wave on the rest of the Ducks and say he'll catch a ride to the arena with one of the fans lined up for his signature.

“That is a true story,” Selanne says. “I didn't know the guy very well, but I knew him. I've done that a couple times. But I don't jump in anybody's car. I have to know them a little bit.”

He plays the only team sport that celebrates fighting, hockey also encouraging body blocks, poke checks and general mayhem in front of the net. A wickedly flung elbow in this game will cost the transgressor only two minutes.

Yet, Selanne insists he has no enemies, not even Brad Richardson, the former Kings forward with whom he fought at the end of the 2010-11 regular season.

Last year, during the NHL lockout, players from the Kings and Ducks often skated together to stay in shape. One day, Selanne and Richardson found themselves sharing the ice, this time at the Kings' training center in El Segundo.

“Right away,” Selanne says, “we shook hands and started laughing.”

If all this sounds too good, like something out of a movie, that's only because it is. The documentary “Sel8nne” just premiered in Finland. In three days, the film became the country's top-grossing documentary ever.

Selanne's popularity, believe it or not, is bilingual.

The star initially refused to participate in the project but eventually changed his mind.

“I decided it would be a good way to leave something behind, be part of my legacy,” Selanne says. “It also was a nice way to say thanks to all the people who have meant so much in my life.”

Entering his final NHL season, Selanne presented the first going-away gift. Just another kind and considerate gesture.

But let's be honest. No matter how well it was done, no movie ever could be better than the real thing.

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